Month: Aug 2017

Andy Morten has penned three of the four tracks here and they very much reflect his encyclopaedic knowledge gained from penning everything from Shindig! Magazine articles to innumerable 60s psych reissue CD sleeves.

But for good or bad, those who discover Magpie will mostly be power pop aficionados. Yet this isn’t power pop. After all, what is powerful with lines like:

“Well, my clothes are getting dirty
and my shoes are full of holes
and my hair is lank and greasy
and I’m feeling much too old”

Nothing, really!

Instead, this is pop music that has so much confidence in itself it doesn’t need to resort to power to get the point across. In the sense that it references the forgotten pop geniuses instead of those 60s pop giants everyone knows, I would rather call this deep pop.

And given the slight country feel to these tracks, the deep pop reference here is definitely the Honeybus (with whom Any Morten once played a reunion concert…)

If you don’t know the Honeybus, your first priority should be to change that. But if you do, then this Magpie EP is absolutely something you want.

Here we meet up with the Muffins four years before their masterly Manna/Mirage debut. We have been there before, on the other mid 70s Muffins compilation “Chronometers” with which this shares several tracks – although the versions presented here seem a bit rougher and with more of a live feel.

The Canterbury jazz vibe is strong in these early recordings. And the humour is so disarmingly awkward it indeed manages to become a satisfyingly American counterpart to the Monty Pythonesque originals it seeks to emulate.
Maybe due to the fact that much of this release was originally designed as a reel-to-reel album, titled “Agar Squid,” it actually works as one. It isn’t as top heavy as the already mentioned “Chronometer” compilation, and although it might not quite live up to the quality of that release, the tracks are very nicely sequenced. For example, if you manage to endure the opening track, you can almost feel your soul lift as that is followed by the soothing “Brix.”

The fact that that the Muffins were already this incredibly close in the 1974-76 time frame to what their Canterbury counterparts were doing speaks volumes. There is synchronicity at play here, not just influence.
Still, you can not help but smile when you hear a track like “English” with its spoken “It’s time for tea” pronounced in such a distinct American accent that you are immediately convinced these guys never had afternoon tea.

All in all, an incredibly satisfying listen and one of the key reissues of 2017. Although I have never heard the original tape releases, there were two more in the same series, and they are also planned for CD reissue. Let us hope that they will be as great as this one!

http://www.mannamirage.com/secret-signals/

Compared to some of the references I have peppered this short text with already, the focus here is clearly on the straightforward pop side of things. Experiments, silly interludes, concept suites, and even radiophonic sounds of the kind served up on the latest (but I sincerely hope not last!) Dr Cosmo’s Tabe Lab release “Super Chrome Class” are conspicuously absent.

“The Radiophonic Tuck Shop” was originally a Chuck Berry tribute song done by Joe together with Nic Denholm, but it seems that now the time has come to take the pop confectionery approach a step further.
Indeed, the melodies on offer here are straight from silly pop heaven. Guaranteed to put a smile on your face.

http://shop.lastnightfromglasgow.com/product/radiophonic-tuckshop-running-commentary-ep

Konstpop med substans. Ett absolut måste i skivsamlingen.